# Intelligence Cap **Entity class:** Policy concept **Domain:** Artificial intelligence / science / political economy **Maturity:** Developed ## Definition **Intelligence Cap** An intelligence cap is a legal or technical attempt to prohibit systems from exceeding a specified cognitive threshold. ## Mechanism and Consequence The concept becomes difficult to delimit when machine intelligence augments people, circulates as mathematics or open weights, and supplies scientific or medical capability. A cap on machines can therefore become a cap on human-machine development. ## Relationships - [[wiki/AI Control|AI Control]] - [[wiki/Posthumanism|Posthumanism]] - [[wiki/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]] - [[wiki/Innovation Chilling Effect|Innovation Chilling Effect]] ## Source Dossiers - [[research/AI Is Now So Good They Will Pay You to Quit|AI Is Now So Good They Will Pay You to Quit]] - [[research/Super Intelligence Week Index of Statements from the White House Luncheon|Super Intelligence Week Index of Statements from the White House Luncheon]] - [[research/Jensen Pushes Back on Doomers Moonshots Live|Jensen Pushes Back on Doomers Moonshots Live]] ## Simple Reminders, Quotations, and Thoughts > "Because humans are going to merge with machines, a statutory cap on machine intelligence is effectively a cap on individual human intelligence. Penalizing people for being too smart is a terrible and evil idea. History will reflect that proposing a cap on intelligence—whether machine, human, or human-machine hybrid—is the equivalent of communism in the twenty-first century." > **— Alexander Wissner-Gross**, *MOONSHOTS Live, September 25, 2026* [[reminders/Posthumanism/A Machine-Intelligence Cap Becomes a Human-Intelligence Cap by Alexander Wissner-Gross|A Machine-Intelligence Cap Becomes a Human-Intelligence Cap by Alexander Wissner-Gross]] > "Putting a statutory cap on intelligence, aside from being a terrible idea, is an evil idea. It is tantamount to capping human intelligence. The story of dystopias in science fiction is: burn the books and burn the minds." > **— Alexander Wissner-Gross**, *MOONSHOTS Live, September 25, 2026* [[reminders/AI Control/Capping Machine Intelligence Means Burning the Minds by Alexander Wissner-Gross|Capping Machine Intelligence Means Burning the Minds by Alexander Wissner-Gross]]